Use the Pop Art Photo Effect in PicMonkey

Use the Pop Art Photo Effect in PicMonkey

Use the Pop Art Photo Effect in PicMonkey

January 18, 2017PicMonkey

Did you know you can whip up a pop art masterpiece in a coupla minutes with PicMonkey? One option is to go all Andy Warhol with our screamingly cool pop art photo effect collage, complete with enough colors to give the ’60s a run for their money. Another choice is to make your photo look like a silkscreen print, with all the vintage grit that says, “Yes, in fact I did win this at a fancy auction.”

You’ll be prompted to select your image. Pick just one. In Collage, click the Layouts tab to find the Warholiest option. (For us, that’s the 3 x 3 in the Square Deal layout.) You can customize your spacing and background in the Background tab (the palette icon).

You have two easy options for populating your cells:

Drag your image from the photo tray into each cell.

Click AutoFill (in the top toolbar) to fill your cells automatically.

Back to the Editor

Hover over a cell and click the Edit button in the top left corner. It seems like you only have access to a few effects with the Effects tab, but get ready to have your mind blown. Click Open image in Editor and you’ll be zorped into a magic wormhole that allows you to jump from Collage to the Editor.

Choose your colors

Now that you’re in the Editor, click the Effects tab and scroll down to Warhol. The first color applies to shadows, and the second applies to highlights, so play around. There’s a buncha different directions you can take.

Complete your collage

After you’ve picked your two colors, click < Back to Collage at the tippy top of the panel. Boom! One down; the rest to go. When you’re done, slap on the Comic Print effect from the Comic Heroes theme for a Lichtenstein zing. Have fun and wait for the museums to call.

Get a Marilyn pop art effect

Achieving this cool silkscreen pop art effect is a two-part process. First, you’ll build an image to open as an graphic. Then you’ll open that graphic to build your pop art illustration.

Open your photo in the Editor

Then paint your background white. To do this, use the Draw tool down in the Artsy group of the Effects tab. Don’t worry too much about precision. Roughness is part of the look.

Switch to black and white

Convert your image to black and white with Daguerreotype (Brady). Of our nine black and white effects, Daguerreotype is ideal for this project. To get that gritty silkscreen print look, click the Basic Edits tab to increase Highlights and Shadows in the Exposure settings. Next, apply the Sketch effect (Themes > Comic Heroes), and adjust the Fade slider until your image has a high-contrast but balanced distribution of black and white.

Open your image with the Your Own button in the Graphics tab, and size it up to your canvas. Now, the schweeeeet part about opening your image as an graphic is that you have control over the blend mode. (Blend modes can do miraculous things—like make a double exposure—so don’t forget to show them some love.) You’ll find the Blend modes in the graphic palette.

Set your graphic’s blend mode to Multiply. This’ll let you paint in the white parts without painting all the way over your illustration (like you did with the background).

Complete ze masterpiece

Go back to the Draw tool to paint the background and portrait colors for your illustration.

PicMonkey

This article was written by PicMonkey Staff, a multicellular organism of hive-minded sub-parts who just wanna get you the ideas and information you crave, so you can make good pictures and take over the world.